AS and middle-management

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middle-management has been made out to be understood as a place that NTs fall into when they are competent enough on the front-lines (though not that great at it) to move up, yet not competent enough to rise to upper-management. therefore, 'middle-management' is seen as the level at which failures end up. (depending on the NT, this may be total nonsense, but it is nonetheless the way society perceives it).

i realized today that the above is rather meaningless to me as the above assumes that humans are after power, that i wanted to increase my status and make people do things and that i aspire to take the job of the person above me.

i cannot seem to get across that i am there to complete a task, to help others complete tasks, to make our little world more efficient and pleasant and leave it at that. my intention is never power-related and i feel like because of this fact, i am actually seen to be more power hungry than an NT who is moderately interested in power.

thus, both sides (from below and above) are causing my inefficiency (whether consciously or not).

i fear little for failure, dont care if im liked, but would like to complete tasks in this environment.

not looking for responses necessarily, but wanted to share.

they dont know what they are doing to me and i dont exactly have the woo to explain it to them without seeming to be coming from an 'emotional' place. i wish i could tell them somehow, i really do. they are suffering and i want to help, but they just dont get that.

I agree. Some things are best left unexplained. You can be misunderstood on many many levels and fired.

Are you new to middle management? I am. If you want to commiserate on stuff, feel free to send me a PM. I may not have the answers, but I am trying to communicate with other Aspies in middle management for reasons of hope. I may not have the same issues or be in a similar environment, but I believe that working together, people can learn a lot. I do tend to write lengthy replies (I am very careful when I answer...). My very first work assignment that was permanent full time left me feeling hopeless, but I have a more supportive supervisor, and am in a better place now!

Woof.

If the job is high enough or broad enough, or could be, maybe you could get an NT co-manager or assistant who could do the people part while you do the planning and such.

Working with smooshy things that don't have reliable control inputs is a big part of managing. A seriously big part of it. Getting people to want to do things is often as much work as figuring out what to want them to do. You can't just tell them. Information alone won't engage the emotions needed to make them actually do something. You can't give them too much direction because they will resent being micro-managed. You can't give them too little or they'll go off in different directions or slack off. You can't praise them too little or they'll feel unappreciated. You can't praise them indiscriminately or they'll recognize it as fake or get swollen heads. You have to be able to correct them without making them feel like you think they're stupid. This is especially important with people who actually are stupid.

The farthest I got with managing others wasn't even the bottom rung of the ladder. It was more like standing facing the ladder. I was made the leader of a work group and I couldn't lead them at all.

I hope you can do better than I did.

If there's no chance of getting an assistant or at least some kind of training if you haven't had it, don't bother asking for help. You have the responsibility for getting the cooperation and participation of the people below you. You can't tell them to fix themselves. What comes from your office needs fixed.

Don't tell your overlords they're doing anything wrong unless you can do it in a way that will inspire them to right their wrong without them noticing that you're correcting something they did.

Sorry to be such a downer.